1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a camera device equipped with an automatic tracking function for detecting a tracking target through analysis of a picked-up image to thereby perform camera control.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, there have been proposed camera apparatuses each equipped with an automatic tracking function for tracking a tracking target through analysis of a picked-up image. For example, a camera apparatus has been proposed in which a center-of-gravity position of a tracking target on a picked-up image is calculated such that the tracking target can be viewed in the center of the picked-up image, and the swing of the camera is controlled such that the center-of-gravity position is aligned with a central position of the picked-up image.
Further, a camera apparatus described below is known as one which realizes camera control based on virtual panning, tilting, and zooming operations, by cutting out an arbitrary partial image from a whole image and outputting the partial image.
This camera apparatus, which uses a wide angle optical system including an omnidirectional mirror and a fisheye lens, corrects distortion of a whole image according to a view field range input by a client, and cuts out and outputs a partial image corresponding to the designated view field range (see e.g. Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication (Kokai) No. H09-261522).
FIG. 9 is a schematic block diagram of the camera apparatus according to the prior art.
As shown in FIG. 9, the camera apparatus includes an image pickup section 901 that captures an image and converts the captured image into an image signal, and an image processing section 902 that performs analog-to-digital conversion, various kinds of image processing, and compression on the image signal as required, and converts the image signal into image data.
The camera apparatus further includes an image output section 903 that outputs the image data, and a tracking method-calculating section 904 that calculates a position of a tracking target in the image and then calculates camera control parameters 1 for performing camera control based on the calculated position.
Further, the camera apparatus includes a camera control request input section 905 that obtains camera control parameters 2 for performing camera control based on a camera control request from a user.
Furthermore, the camera apparatus includes a camera control section 906 that selects either the camera control parameters 1 or the camera control parameters 2 and generates control signals for controlling a panning drive section 907, a tilting drive section 908, and a zooming drive section 909, respectively.
The camera control section 906 selects the camera control parameters 1 as parameters to be used for generation of a control signal when the automatic tracking function is enabled, and selects the camera control parameters 2 when the automatic tracking function is disabled.
The above-mentioned component elements are not necessarily required to be independent or separate from each other, but they may be realized by a CPU, a memory, and a program integrating the functions of the component elements. Further, the camera apparatus may be connected to clients via a network.
In this case, the image output section 903 includes a communication section, and an image display section that expands and displays image data, and the camera control request input section 905 includes a communication section and a client GUI via which a user makes a camera control request.
However, in the conventional camera apparatus, the user is not allowed at all to operate the camera during automatic tracking operation, so that it is required to perform zoom control toward a wider angle of view than an angle of view determined by the automatic tracking function so as to check surroundings of a tracking target, or to perform pan control toward a position slightly forward of a position determined by the automatic tracking function so as to check things existing in the front view field of a person as a tracking target. This makes it impossible to perform fine adjustment of a camera position.